i love queer media written by queer writers i love you six canonically queer characters i love you diverse cast i love you indian punk charles rowland who stands up for what he believes in and is passionate about protecting others because no one protected him i you love asian girl niko sasaki who canonically reads smut i love you effeminate and badass edwin payne who is seen as desirable despite his neurodivergent traits i love you sensitive black girl who defeated her demon ex boyfriend by using the strength of her ancestors crystal palace i love you multilayered slutty queer coded villains i love the diverging of expectations and stereotypes i love you dead boy detectives
I don't even know what to say... at least I'm not sad or devastated (thank GOD) but WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT???
I just don't understand?? Genuinely confused? Like... WHY????
I guess I'm just so fucking irritated and angry that these bleak ending can't even scar me anymore
If byler isn't endgame why did the duffer brothers write mileven to be such a boring ass couple? What emotional weight was Finn supposedly carrying this season and why didn't we see it?? What the fuck was up with Vickie and why did she disappear from the epilogue? Why was she even included then? Why was Robin suddenly looking super similar to Maya Hawke the actress and nothing like the character we were introduced to in season 3?? What happened to the byers family dynamic and why does it feel like Joyce's character got diluted? Don't even get me started on Lucas and his lack of storylines and development, we all know why that happened...
What was the point of Hopper losing both of his daughters? How is El ending up dead or alone, isolated from her entire family and friends an ending true to her character? You're telling me the ONLY POSSIBLE ending for the abused and traumatized little girl, who knew nothing but violence from an early age, was THAT?? HOW ON EARTH IS THIS A GOOD WAY TO END YOUR NINE YEAR OLD SHOW?
I just... I'm baffled
I don't even know what to say anymore, it's just such a ridiculous way to end a show that claims to be about outcasts
ALSO my homegirl KALI!! YOU ALL DO NOT DESERVE HER!!
Kali, Will and El - I will forever mourn your dynamic... Millie was so right when she said they're the only ones who can relate and truly understand her trauma and experiences
Anyway... at least we got Max back on a skateboard, she looked stunning, Lumax stays winning and they're 100% moving to San Francisco with Will
Mike Wheeler I will forever mourn your potential as a repressed gay teenager living in the 80s during the AIDS epidemic - your homoerotic best friend from childhood will haunt you forever (I hope he'll never sleep peacefully again)
"I'm not vulnerable bc I was hurt" VULNERABILITY MEANS THE KNOWLEDGE YOU COULD BE HURT AND PRIORITIZATION OF GENTLENESS DINGUS. BEFORE THAT YOU WEREN'T VULNERABLE YOU WERE OBLIVIOUS. VULNERABILITY REQUIRES AWARENESS OF THE STAKES
So the thing that drives me crazy about the boysâ âdetective licenseâ
(Which reads:
Certification to Practice
London, United Kingdom
By authority conferred by the Other Galaxy Comics we bestow upon to Charles Rowland & Edwin Payne the Honour to practice and a certification of Licensed Detective Agency in recognition of proficiency and professionalism in the art of gathering information, surveillance, subterfuge, critical thinking, the recognition of pertinent information that may be lost in the sea of the superfluous and leaping over dead ends. Above all else the protection of law and order when it is convenient to do so and the wisdom to know how to not get caught when it is not.)
Is thatâŚ
They really are just two 16 year olds who found themselves abruptly without adult supervision, at least one of whom is wholly a juvenile delinquent (itâs Edwin), and proceeded to run amok.
Like. Theyâre genuinely very very good at their job! And professional, most of the time! They're brilliant, and moral, and caring! They're good!
They are also two troublemaking kids who are spending eternity playing hooky to go on a joyride, in a car they very much stole, and that neither of them has a real (not from a comic) license to drive. And they will very much be vandalizing their enemiesâ houses on the way, and it is not only possible but probable that the night will end with flooring it to run from the cops.
They lived lives of intense suppression and restriction and then suddenly realized they had no one to answer to but each other, Edwin's going to Hell either way and no cop or security camera can see them, no one can yell or punish them, and if someone tries they can yell and hit right back, they can finally do what they want, and now, well... Edwin steals evidence from police stations without even hesitating and 'trespassing' is a concept relevant only to vampires and squares.
I just can't get over how little provocation it takes for the Agency to absolutely fucking terrorize Twitchy Richie.
Like, he made one (pretty mild tbh) gay joke and then obliquely threatened Crystal to get her to leave him alone (and she was in no way whatsoever in danger, even if he had meant the threat, which he clearly didn't)
And then Charles in completely cold blood throws him over a hecking table and drags him around and chokes him out while Edwin and Crystal psychologically torture him in ways that will shake his worldview forever and most definitely give him nightmares in the short term and for what. for why.
for the love of the game as best I can tell and I support them in that so hard
In her essay "Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?" from her book The Language of the Night: Essays of Fantasy and Science Fiction, science-fiction and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin writesâ
"The use of imaginative fiction is to deepen your understanding of your world, of your fellow men, and your own feelings, and your destiny."
It would be easy for me to claim that Stranger Things is a show that utilizes its science-fiction elements as an AIDS metaphor, but that only goes so far without being able to prove that the show is in fact employing said metaphor. "The show takes place in the 80's -> AIDS was a big part of the 80's -> therefore the show is about AIDS" isn't an airtight argument in itself. I can quote famous sci-fi writers all day but that still wouldn't prove that the Duffers themselves are actually following similar trains of thought.
So here's my big long post about why the show is utilizing it's science-fiction elements as an AIDS metaphor.
Lengthy discussion of rape, violent homophobia and drug use below the cut.
A Brief History of HIV/AIDS in America
For those not in the know about HIV/AIDS, and in order to all get on the same page, here is a short recap. For my information, I will be this timeline from hiv.gov as well as this timeline created by History Channel, as well as some of the supplemental hyperlinks provided. Any other sources I use will be linked throughout.
HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus is a virus that attacks the body's immune system, making it highly susceptible to infection and cancers. The virus can progress to a more severe version of the infection, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS. The virus spreads through bodily fluids such as semen and blood. The most common ways for HIV/AIDS to spread was through unprotected sex and sharing needles while using drugs.
The initial cases of HIV were present in America in the 70's but become much more rampant starting in the early 1980s. Because cases of AIDS were most commonly seen in gay and bisexual men, there was a large misconception that AIDS was a "gay plague" or a "gay disease" as it was nicknamed. By 1984, 3,500 Americans had died from AIDS related illnesses.
The reason that AIDS epidemic got as deadly as it did is often attributed to the Reagan Administration's failure to act, something that President Reagan denied. Reagan would not publicly acknowledge AIDS until 1985, despite U.S. health officials being aware of AIDS since 1981.
Understanding just how entrenched this metaphor is in the story will include going through each season and examining in detail how each one plays into this metaphor.
Season One: Establishing Metaphor & Government Cover Up in Early Years of Epidemic
The AIDS metaphor is most closely connected with Will's storyline, although it's not exclusive to Will nor is his storyline exclusive to AIDS. Furthermore, the supernatural elements of this show are multifaceted. AIDS is but just one of the metaphors expressed in the show, but for the sake of this post it's what I will be focusing on.
The setup begins following Will's disappearance in episode 1, when Joyce introduces Will's queer coding to us.
By 1983 the terms "gay disease" and "gay cancer" had been in the public vocabulary for a couple years now. So when Joyce brings up his queerness in regards to to his disappearance in a show that takes place in the early 1980s, there is a subconscious correlation that can be made in the watchers mind. His sexuality is significant to the why he went missing, otherwise why bring it up?
We then hear through Troy exactly what the town believes happened to Will.
I think that Troy essentially being a mouthpiece for his father is significant to show that Troy's beliefs are not exclusive to him and they do not exist in a vacuum. Troy's homophobia is a product of his environment, which includes his home and by extension, Hawkins.
The specification that Will was killed by "some other queer" adds another layer under the surface of Troy's statement, one that implies that Will was raped before he was kill, otherwise, again, why bring up sexuality in the first place? This was the attitude toward gay menâ they rape and kill little boys.
In early 1984, there was a study conducted by the American Journal of Medicine to trace the sexual partners of a cluster of patients with Kaposi Sarcoma, one of the common cancers that killed AIDS patients. The study identified a flight attendant as "Patient O" who was among the first to exhibit symptoms of HIV/AIDS and had a rather active sex life with a multitude of sexual partners. The study was soon misconstrued by the public to claim that there was a Patient Zero who was "a promiscuous or even malicious gay man who single-handedly and knowingly touched off the AIDS pandemic in the United States."
Another crucial factor of the metaphor is the cover-up and blame shifting from the government lab, the exact thing that allowed the problem to escalate and become as deadly as it did to begin with. In the early years of the epidemic, Reagan slashed the budget of public health agencies like the CDC, and it would be years until he ever made a speech about it let alone even mentioned AIDS publicly.
We see how adamant the lab is to cover up any supernatural involvement with Will's disappearance in an attempt to cover their own asses. Framing his death as an accident was their call, all while being acutely aware of what the actual problem was. This confrontation from Joyce to Brenner puts it pretty aptly.
Tangent About Barb
This AIDS metaphor is something that I thought of when I first watched the show back in 2016 (humble brag) but what tipped me off the most wasn't Will or the lab but it was the fact that Barb was the other victim shown.
Barb's queer coding was clear to everyone and their mother. Hell, there's even a joke about it in the Bad Lip Reading of the first season. Barb, Nancy's short haired female friend who takes issue with Nancy's new relationship and has a hard time fitting in with with all of the heterosexual antics of Steve's house party. She's singled out, and while the rest of the gang get to casually enjoy the pleasures of sex, while Barb, another member of the queer community, sadly loses her life. The show cuts between Nancy having sex with Steve with Barb being killed to emphasize this stark contrast.
Season Two: Personal Effects of HIV/AIDS & Social Stigmatization
Season one was surrounding Will while not really showing us much of his pov, but season two dives right in to his perspective.
So, remember when I talked earlier about how Troy, and by extension the town, believed that Will was raped? Well, he wasn't exactly wrong.
This moment wasn't lost on me when I originally watched the show, although I think I ignored the implications because I didn't want to believe what I was seeing. But it's pretty well spelled outâ A long, tentacle-like organ used for the sake of reproduction (Will "births" D'Art as a result of this), is inserted inside of Will's mouth without consent.
It's been a year, and Will is still dealing with the trauma of what happened, along with all of these new changes to his life. Will frequently attends doctors appointments at the lab, where the lab themselves aren't completely confident what is happening with him either.
When cases of HIV/AIDS were first appearing in the U.S., health officials were unclear as to what exactly this virus was and how it worked, only that clusters of otherwise healthy gay men were suddenly developing rare and aggressive infections and cancers.
Owens refers to the spread of the Upside Down very clinicallyâ describing it as some cancer. One of the first articles published about HIV/AIDS in America before more information was known was a New York Times article titled "Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals." The cancer the headline refers to being Karposi Sarcoma, the rare skin cancer developing due to their weakened immune system.
HIV/AIDS in itself isnât the disease that patients die from, but instead the weakened immune system allows for diseases to take over the body without much defense. After his visit to the Upside Down, Will faces a series of âTrue Sightâ visions as Mike puts it, which allows for a destructive foreign entity to invade Will's body and slowly take it over.
HIV.gov lists the following as some of the symptoms of AIDS:
"Rapid weight loss"
"Profuse night sweats"
and "Memory loss"
To the government agents in the lab, we see just how disposable Will is to them. In their words, if it kills him, it kills him. (thank you to @emblazons for being the one to point this out to me)
Owens may have held more concern for Will, but he still continues the government cover-up started by Brenner in season one. We also see the fallout of Barb's death, with Nancy and Jonathan fighting to uncover and reveal the truth. Owens is the one who tries to put a stop to their exposĂŠ of events to Barb's mom.
Not only is Will facing trauma and his body being ravaged by this new illness, but he's also facing social stigmatization, something common among gay men with positive HIV statuses at this time. There seemed to be some sympathy from the townsfolk when Will was missing and presumed dead, yet he faces animosity almost seemingly because he came back.
The "Zombie Boy" Nickname
I once made a whole separate post about this, but Will's "Zombie Boy" nickname from season two fits in with this AIDS metaphor.
On a surface level, the nickname is in reference to the fact that Will seemed to come back to life despite having a funeral and being buried. In a literal sense, however, his peers are quite literally referring to him a walking corpse that spreads disease. Individuals suffering from AIDS often have very short life expectancies, and zombies are the re-animated dead that aim to infect and kill as many people as possible. It is a very coded nickname.
In the post that I linked, I speculate the possibility that some people in town may even believe that Will has HIV. Remember earlier when I mentioned Troy's comment "he was probably killed by some other queer" which implies a belief that Will was raped. The town don't know about any of the supernatural goings-on, but they do know that Will went missing, was found in a cabin a week later, was hospitalized shortly after and attended frequent doctor visits through the following year. I don't see a reason that malicious rumors would cease, especially considering that they already continue to be cruel and ostracizing with the Zombie Boy nickname.
Look also at this moment of Will getting weird looks as he is being pulled from school to attend his doctors appointment. Why so much stigma around simply going to the doctor?
The 1984 Reelection of Ronald Reagan
In 1984, Ronald Reagan won reelection in one of the biggest election wins in history. Andâ subsequently continuing his and the governments silence towards the AIDS epidemic.
Season two takes place in the week leading up to the reelection. There are small set pieces that draw attention to this, such as this election sign in front of the library.
If the date November 6th sounds familiar, it should.
Dr. Owens mentions the anniversary of Will's disappearance. The one year anniversary of Will's disappearance is the same day that Ronald Reagan was reelected. Will's trauma is being purposefully associated with that day.
I've also made a separate post before just about the Reagan/Bush '84 signs that litter the lawns of Hawkins houses. They appear most notably in the Halloween episode, building to when Will has his true sight episode that night. There is one clearly in frame just before Will is separated from the group, called a "Zombie Boy" and a "freak" (two very coded nicknames) before he falls into his vision.
We also get a clear view of the Reagan/Bush sign outside of the Wheeler house before Will describes his experience to Mike.
A Tangent About the Wheelers
And now the question on everyone's mind: Are the Wheeler's homophobic?
Ted and Karen Wheeler are not violent, homophobic bullies. That would be a massive reach. But it would also be a reach to say that they are vocal allies. And maybe that's just what the average middle class family
In the very least, the Wheelers are passively contributing to a system that enables homophobia. To be honest, they are probably just going along with what everyone else is doing. Like I said earlier, Reagan was an incredibly popular candidate for the 1984 reelection. The Wheelers have the privilege of being able to comfortably conform without having to worry about much of the consequences. (I'll talk more about the Wheelers later)
In the episode where Will is possessed by the Mind Flayer, Joyce calls the school and we get an extended shot with Reagan's portrait in the background. The shot begins with the portrait slightly obscured, then the camera dolly's in towards the receptionist with the portrait still in frame. Shortly after this Will is possessed in the field. Here is one of the camera begins the shot and where the camera ends the shot.
I also wanna note that when Joyce calls in this scene, the receptionist makes a side comment about her and rolls her eyes. There's a clear animosity towards not only Will, but the whole Byers family, including the adults of the town. Including Reagan's portrait in this shot is meant to create a subtle correlation between him and the stigma that the Byers' face.
Season Three: The Façade of Patriotism Over a Dying Nation
It's 1985, Ronald Reagan has been reelected, and this season introduces Hawkins Mayor Larry Kline.
Is Larry Kline meant to be Ronald Reagan?
I would say that Mayor Kline is probably exemplary of American politicians in a broader sense (in fact the Duffers may have been making allusions to Trump with his connection to the Russians) although the fact that he's in office the same time as Reagan is still significant.
In the beginning of the season, Mayor Kline is being met with protesters outside his house, not unlike many of the AIDS awareness protests from the 80's.
The townsfolk are angered with Kline for building the mall and running some of the small businesses into the ground. During Reagan's run, he implemented a system of economics called "Reaganomics," which aimed to cut taxes and support economic growth. Although critics of Reaganomics will point out that his policies had actually increased the wealth gap, making the rich richer and the poor, poor. I want to keep this post about the AIDS metaphor, although I wanted to point this out as it is a connection between Kline and Reagan. And as I said earlier in this post, the metaphors are multifaceted and not just about AIDS.
But continuing, later in the season Kline puts on a big 4th of July festival to celebrate the independence of his country with neon lights and flashy fireworks. Meanwhile, the people of his town are dying right under his political reign.
During season 3, the AIDS metaphor actually moves away from Will, with the focus of his story shifting slowly to romance. This was setup at the Snowball at the end of season 2, and season 3 hints at some of Will's feelings for Mike which will be carried into season 4.
But the metaphor is carried on by Will's name twin, Billy.
Billy and Will sharing the same first name, that being William, feels significant as Will basically passes the baton to him and Billy now becomes the focus for this metaphor. We learn from Max that Billy is very sexually active, and in the beginning of the season he has eyes for Karen Wheeler. It is while he is on his way to this illicit sexual affair when he is "infected" by the Mind Flayer. (this was pointed out to me in the comment of one of my posts, but have since lost it. If you are reading thisâ thank you.)
Billy then passes the "infection" along to a girl he was flirtatious with, before the "virus" begins spreading over town.
There is also language and rape imagery associated with being flayed. There is the repeated lines "hold still" and "it'll all be over soon." When Heather's parents are flayed, they are tied up something is forcefully inserted orally, not unlike what we saw with the tentacle inside of Will in season one and his possession in season two. (I first saw this pointed out by @kaypeace21
The flayed begin to eat chemicals, and Nancy makes the comment that Tom, one of the flayed, appears to have been on drugs. Another common way that HIV is spread is through the sharing of drug needles.
HIV/AIDS in the Press
Nancy's arc with the newspaper this season reminds me a lot of how AIDS was first being reported in the press. Nancy begins her search for a story with stolen fertilizer and diseased rats, not realizing that there was a much bigger and much more dangerous story at hand. One of the first reports HIV in the media was from a CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from 1981, which cited five cases of pneumonia in previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles. While still a deadly number, it was relatively small compared to the massive number of AIDS cases and deaths that would soon follow.
When Nancy brings her story to work, Bruce, one of her higher-ups, sips from this rather patriotic coffee mug before telling Nancy to drop the story.
At the end of the 1985 summer in Hawkins, the flayed have died in a "mall fire" and Larry Kline is arrested for colluding with the Russians, and their patriotic façade is shattered.
In September 1985, shortly after actor and close friend of Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson dies, of an AIDS related illness, Reagan makes his first public acknowledgement of AIDS.
Season Four: Further Stigmatization & LGBT Witch Hunting
In season four the town is finally privy to the fact that there is something wrong going on, although they are unsure of exactly what. When things begin to escalate, instead of blaming the actual guilty party, they go on an all-out witch hunt.
Once again, Will's pretty removed from the AIDS storyline in this season with his arc focusing on his romantic feelings for Mike. With Billy dead and Will out of town, the baton passes once again for the metaphor to be carried by Eddie Munson.
In the first episode of season 4, Eddie is reading a magazine with an article about the Satanic Panic, a real case of wide-spread hysteria in the 1980's regarding the fear of rising Satanism, supposedly promoted by D&D. The article links the game to violent behavior, Satanic worship, sodomy and murder.
Tangent on Sodomy and Sodomy Laws
Merriam-Webster defines sodomy as "anal or oral copulation with another person." The definition is often expanded to include copulation with animals, although the term sodomy, according to Merriam-Webster, means "especially: anal or oral copulation with a member of the same sex."
While definitions may vary depending on states, some states have specific laws outlawing sodomy, even between consenting adults. In 1986, the Supreme Court upheld Georgia's anti-sodomy laws in Bowers v. Hardwick, after a homosexual man and his partner were arrested after being caught while having sex in his own home. Sodomy laws would eventually be challenged again in 2002 with the Lawrence v. Texas case.
While sodomy can technically can refer to both homosexual and heterosexuals, it is especially and historically has been used in regards to homosexual sex. When Eddie reads the word sodomy here, gay sex is being lumped in and made equivalent to violent behavior, Satanic worship, and murder. Quite literally in season four, Hellfire Club is seen as the evil Satanic sodomizers who bring death to their town.
While trying to find a substitute for the D&D game, one of kids Mike asks mentions 60 Minutes in his rebuttal of Mike's request. This episode takes place on March 21st, 1986. On March 16th, 1986, 60 Minutes played a segment called "Life and Death in San Fransisco," a segment about the AIDS virus on CBS. (EDIT: I originally attributed this to the wrong person, but thank you to @aemiron-main for being the one to point this out. Apologies for my memory mixing up my ST analysts in my head đ) The archived footage can be viewed on YouTube.
When Chrissy is killed by Vecna inside of Eddie's trailer, leading the town to suspect that Eddie was the killer, she was going there to do drugs. Again, a common way for AIDS to be spread was through the sharing of drug needles. After the town and cops suspect Eddie, the town goes on an all-out witch hunt for him and other members of Hellfire, invoking Christianity as their reasoning. In Eddie's wordsâ "Hunt the freak, right?"
Does this mean that Eddie is queer?
The black handkerchief in his back pocket and Joseph Quinn's flirtatious ad-libs with Steve are not completely lost on me. And the AIDS coding here does seem to be pointing in that direction, but here's what I think.
Eddie's actual sexual orientation, and by extension that of Hellfire, is beside the point and doesn't actually matter in the eyes of the town. Every member of Hellfire could be straight and every member of Hellfire could be gay, but what matters is that Hellfire Club is a group of outsiders that participate in recreational activity that is deemed dangerous, and that in itself is queer, regardless of who they may actually be attracted to.
Another Tangent on The Wheelers
During Jason's religious spiel in town hall which invoked the witch hunt against Eddie and Hellfire, we get this shot of Ted and Karen Wheeler upon remembering that Mike is a part of Hellfire. And boy do they look terrified.
This moment, right here, is what I believe to be the Wheeler rug pull. They may not have been signing up to witch hunt their son when they put that Reagan sign in their front lawn, but this is what it leads to. They're being confronted with the most extreme end of their forced conformity and they fear what they see. I think part of what causes this change in character is because they know Mike, had Mike not been a Hellfire member, who is to say if they would have changed their tune or join in the witch hunt. At the end of the season, when the news reports that the giant gate in town is a "doorway to Hell," both Ted and Karen scoff at the report, calling it "hysteria." The conformists are beginning to un-conform.
Concluding Thoughts & Season Five
Providing a story about HIV/AIDS through a science-fiction metaphor is both practical and ethical. The metaphor allows the show to tell the story to a wide audience without the reliance on outside knowledge. You don't have to be an expert in HIV/AIDS history to understand the story that it's trying to tell. It's ethical as well in that it doesn't force it's incredibly young actors to have to act out being raped and developing HIV/AIDS.
With Eddie Munson dead and Zombie Boy back in town, I think that the AIDS metaphor will shift it's focus back to Will. I think we may see a colliding of the AIDS plot with his romance plot. How do you pursue romance with a HIV+ status? Can you?
The way I see, season 5 has the choice to go in one of two directions:
But first, a short tangent about my uncle
In recent years, I came to learn that my uncle was HIV+, something that wasn't known to me when I was younger. Him and his partner are both in their sixties, and they currently bought a plot of land in which they plan on building their dream house together.
But anyways, the two choices are this:
Will dies by the end of the season. He becomes one of the many gay men with HIV/AIDS who lived a short life, unable to grow into adulthood and pursue his love life. His story is a tragedy.
Will lives. He becomes one of the many gay men with HIV/AIDS who survived and is able to live a long and happy life full of love. His story is an uplifting one full of hope.
Please consider Charles as a member of The Lost and Found. Charles doesn't convince Edwin to let him run away with him. Instead when Death comes he asks if there's something else he can do. There was a nice boy who made dying easier, can he do something like that maybe? And so Death shows him to The Lost and Found.
Admittedly most people don't last long in The Lost and Found and choose their after lives pretty quickly. Charles however LOVES IT. He's so good at finding lost souls, and helping them move on. He's also a little smug about being The Notary's favourite. He's been renamed The Actuary. Don't ask him. He doesn't pick the job titles. But he does miss having a real name...
One day he runs into Edwin again, and Edwin recognises him immediately. "Charles?" And it's been so long. Time is funny in L&F but it feels like decades since anyone said his real name, and his name is CHARLES. He's someone besides The Actuary. Technically speaking The Actuary does have Edwin's file. Technically speaking The Actuary should process Edwin Payne and send him back to Hell.
Technically speaking Charles thinks that's bullshit.
So Charles offers Edwin a deal. He's not going to take Edwin in, and if anyone else tries to process Edwin he can name drop "The Actuary" and that should at least slow things down enough either for Charles to show up, or for Edwin to run away. In exchange, Edwin's going to hold onto something for him.
Edwin is wary of this. Sure he liked Charles well enough for the night they knew each other, but just what does a member of the L&F need him to hold onto? Sounds suspiciously like something that could get him in more trouble.
"My name. I need you to hold onto my name. I'm Charles Rowland. Hold onto that for me so I don't forget."
something something about edwin, the hyper-verbal, eloquent language person, being reduced to a simple 'Charles, I'm in love with you' and Charles, normally answering immediately with exactly what he's thinking in that moment taking the time to think about an answer before giving it
